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Klarsfeld in Beirut as 'substitute hostage' for Jews
January 19, 1986 BEIRUT (Reuter). - West German Nazi-hunter Beate Klarsfelef, in Beirut to offer herself as a substitute hostage for five missing Lebanese Jews, said yesterday she would "knock on all doors" during her freedom mission. Klarsfeld, 46, arrived in Moslem-held West Beirut on Friday saying she had come to denounce the recent killing of two Lebanese Jews and to trade her own freedom for that of five other Jews feared kidnapped. "I will knock on all doors. I don't know which will open for me," she told Reuters as she prepared to seek contact with Shi'ite Moslem political and religious leaders. "I am concerned because nothing is done to help the Jewish hostages. Two were killed because there were no negotiations," she said. "If they take me, something can start." A Shi'ite group, the Organization of the Oppressed in the World, said last November that it was holding four Jews seized in March and threatened to kill them unless Israel freed scores of Shi'ites imprisoned in the South Lebanese village of Khiam. The group also said it had "executed" two of the hostages, Haim Cohen Halala and Isaac Tarrab, who were found shot dead in West Beirut last month. Alone and speaking no Arabic, Klarsfeld admitted she faced a difficult task, but shrugged off personal danger. "I have taken risks before in going to Eastern Europe and to South American dictatorships... but as a German, I cannot tolerate persecution of Jews," she said. "How to get to the group (of captors) - that's my problem." |
